This invention relates to an apparatus which is capable of moving on a vertical wall while adhering to the surface of the wall.
The inventor has disclosed a movable apparatus which is capable of adhering to the surface of a wall in Japanese Pat. application Ser. No. Sho 49-110129. The above apparatus, however, is movable along a wall by four magnetic or suction adhering members which are operated by remote control and alternately adhere to and separate from the wall in pairs to move the apparatus in the desired direction on a vertical or inclined wall; however, the adhering force for each adhering member cannot be increased and the movement of the apparatus is intermittent due to the parallelogramatic relationship of the adhering members.
Accordingly, the above apparatus is less than optimal with respect to safety and reliability.
For example, during the operation of scouring the rust from a wall with an abrasive brushing device which is mounted on the movable apparatus, if the adhering force is insufficient, the rust cannot satisfactorily be removed and there is the danger that the entire apparatus may separate from the wall and fall due to the vibrations of the rust-removing device.
To be more specific, during the operation of the apparatus which has a plurality of rotatable abrasive discs that are mounted between the surface to be cleaned and the apparatus, the apparatus must be stationary until one pair or the other of the wall adhering members complete the adhering operation. This implies that the apparatus moves only intermittently due to the time required to adhere and remove the wall-adhering members to and from the wall. Therefore, the surface of the wall is not uniformly scoured due to the intermittent operation.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which is capable of eliminating the above-mentioned faults.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a movable apparatus capable of adhering to a wall with a greater number of wall-adhering members than conventional apparatuses so that the safety and reliability of the operation of the apparatus is enhanced while continuous motion of the apparatus can be achieved.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a movable apparatus adhering to a wall having a plurality of suction cups as the wall-adhering members so that a strong or sufficient adhering force can be achieved with each cup even when the wall is made of non-magnetic material or when electro-magnetic force is not available due to the condition of the surface of the wall, i.e., the wall is coated with thick paint or the wall has been heavily corroded.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a movable apparatus capable of adhering to a wall which has a mechanism that exerts an additional force to that which is necessary to balance the overall weight of the apparatus. This mechanism can be effectively employed especially in the case when the apparatus moves in a vertical direction along the surface of the wall. Due to this mechanism, the adhering force which is necessary to cause the apparatus to adhere to the wall can be substantially reduced.
This apparatus substantially comprises a body which is capable of moving along the wall, a plurality of wall-adhering members which can be moved in the same direction as that of the body and a mechanism which makes the wall-adhering members adhere to and separate from the surface of a wall.
The operations of making the wall-adhering members adhere to and separate from the wall, changing the position of the wall-adhering member actuating the pneumatic cylinder to press the wall-adhering members onto the surface of the wall which occur in a predetermined sequence are performed on each adhering member.